Happy Monday my friends, we are now approaching the end of September which means near the end of #soaptember. I discovered this challenge on IG via @emeraldgrovestudio and @handmade_hour. The challenge was to ditch your plastic bottles and swap for soap bars. Due to Covid and not being able to buy handwash, we had already made the switch to soap bars for washing your hands but if I’m being honest, I never even considered buying shampoo bars and conditioner bars. It did take me a little while to get my head around it. My 9 year old has hair down to her thighs plus it’s super thick and coarse so I thought this really wouldn’t work. But a friend on IG suggested @kinkindplasticfree as she had tried and tested them herself.
We bit the bullet and ordered us shampoo, conditioner and bodywash bars from them. We got a metal shower hanger which allows all three bars to rest on it plus wash clothes. I think we were all a little apprehensive which I know is stupid – but it takes approximately two hours to do the shower routine with my girls and the thought of it not being up to standard and having to rewash with our bottles well lets just say, I needed to be in really good form to do this. You know what? I am so glad I did. What I discovered was that the suds came so easily. You could either get a lather going in your hands or just rub the soap bar along the length of your hair and rub. Either way you really got more than enough to clean your hair and it rinsed off so easily. It felt very different than your normal shampoo, more subtle if that makes sense? It was very obvious that there must be lots of chemicals in our liquid bottles. Now just before drying the hairs I didn’t think the hair felt very soft, so you can imagine my surprise when after drying, both girls hairs were the softest I’ve felt them in ages. They were also super surprised at how soft their hairs were plus the smell was so fresh. They couldn’t wait to tell their friends in school. I have also used the soap bars myself now repeatedly and I love them. We still have to finish our bottles that we have but I can honestly say none of us want to go back to them.
Also during lockdown, I decided I wanted to make the change to bamboo tooth brushes. I’m ashamed to say that the girls and I probably change our toothbrushes way to often. I realised this needed to stop and that I needed to find a better alternative than what were using. This journey was not as straight forward as the shampoo bars, which is why I thought I must include it here in my blog. Firstly I used a big brand, my thinking being that they would probably be the best that is out there. How wrong was I! It was chunky and really did not feel nice in my mouth. However I had committed to it so I used it for the 3 months, I also tried another brand but again, I really was not impressed. At this stage I was going to give up, until I came across a brand – again on IG called @bambooth. Once I did my research into their brand It became obvious that not all brands have been approved by the oral health foundation and theirs is the first and only bamboo toothbrush with Oral Health Foundation Accreditation. After reading this I knew I had to give it ago and all I can say is that it’s just a good as any plastic toothbrush out there. T
hey are pretty, they come in different colours and each colour represents a charity which means you have just dontated to it. I was so not disappointed and now I can buy them for the whole family. My husband has already made the change and the girlies will make the change (yes they do kids toothbrushes too) once their current toothbrushes are ready for the bin. Another bonus of these toothbrushes is that they come with a recyclable holder. Now I know we are not doing a lot of travelling at the minute but hopefully soon, we will be back out there having our normal adventures.
I know this blog is a bit off the beaten track from my jewellery posts but as you all know I’m trying to be sustainable. It is something I am working hard on, not only for my business but as a family. I’ve recently been watching and reading lots on our planets current environmental issues and we all know plastic is one of the big issues. So, I am trying to do my bit, a little every month goes along way. I want you to know that I am not being paid or given any benefits from either of these companies today for writing this blog. I just wanted to let you know that there are products out there that are just as good, if not better than their plastic alternatives and If you find like me that you want to make a change but not quite sure where to start then these are my suggestions, they are tried and tested by me and I think they are great. So if you are in a position to, I’d say give it a go, it feels good to be making a change.
If you wan to keep up to date with my journey then why not follow me on IG@katrinalucasjewellerydesigns (link at the bottom of the page) and if you sign up to my newsletter you will find out about all offers and new collections first, plus you get 10% off when you sign up.
Well that’s all for today, if you have any plastic free products you use and recommend I would love to hear all about them and also if you try any of my suggestions out I would love to know how you get on. Just leave a comment or drop me an email.
Until next week folks, stay safe and chat soon.
Katrina xx